Question

Compare Wiesel’s and Spiegelman’s choice of genre for their books.

Both chose fictional genres that present the Holocaust.

Both chose genres that present a true story of the Holocaust as one experienced it.

Both chose genres that present a true story of someone else’s experiences during the Holocaust.

Answer 1

Answer:
1 — False.
2 — True.
3 — False.

Brief justification:
- Wiesel’s Night is generally read as a memoir/autobiographical novel: it presents Wiesel’s own firsthand experience of the Holocaust in literary, sometimes novelistic form. It is not a purely fictional genre, though it uses literary shaping.
- Spiegelman’s Maus is a graphic novel/memoir based on extensive interviews with his father, Vladek; it presents Vladek’s true experiences (and the author’s interrogation of memory) in comic form. Although it uses visual metaphor (mice, cats), it is nonfictional reportage/biography rather than invented fiction.
- Therefore both books present true stories of Holocaust experience (statement 2 is correct), but they are not simply “fictional genres” (statement 1 is wrong). And only Spiegelman’s book primarily tells someone else’s (his father’s) experiences; Wiesel’s tells his own (so statement 3 is wrong).